Weekly Read for 05 December 2014
This week’s interesting reads include a look at chimpanzee rights, SeaWorld, elite public schools, and more. Enjoy!
Chimpanzee ‘personhood’ fails on appeal | – “Advocates of “legal personhood” to chimpanzees have lost another battle. This morning, a New York appellate court rejected a lawsuit by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) to free a chimp named Tommy from captivity. The group had argued that the chimpanzee deserved the human right of bodily liberty.” Science/AAAS | News
The American Justice System Is Not Broken – “The American justice system is not broken. This is what the American justice system does. This is what America does. The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates has written damningly of the American preference for viewing our society’s crimes as aberrations—betrayals of some deeper, truer virtue, or departures from some righteous intended path. This is a convenient mythology.” The Concourse
Natural gas: The fracking fallacy – “But a careful examination of the assumptions behind such bullish forecasts suggests that they may be overly optimistic, in part because the government’s predictions rely on coarse-grained studies of major shale formations, or plays. Now, researchers are analysing those formations in much greater detail and are issuing more-conservative forecasts. They calculate that such formations have relatively small ‘sweet spots’ where it will be profitable to extract gas.” Nature
SeaWorld Says It Has to Keep Orcas in Captivity to Save Them | – “Yet independent orca researchers say these arguments don’t hold water. “If SeaWorld didn’t exist, would our understanding of wild killer whales be significantly reduced? I think the answer to that is no, it would not,” says a veteran marine-mammal researcher who works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s a bit like having Walt Disney tell us about mouse biology,” says Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research and a pioneering orca researcher.” Mother Jones
The Cutthroat World of Elite Public Schools – – “”As a result of the [New York City Department of Education’s] exclusive, unjustified, and singular reliance on the [exam], many fully qualified, high-potential students are denied access to the life-changing experiences that the Specialized High Schools offer,” the complaint says. “In a community as diverse as New York City, it is particularly critical that these pathways to leadership be ‘visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.’ … Yet, year after year, thousands of academically talented African-American and Latino students who take the test are denied admission to the Specialized High Schools at rates far higher than those for other racial groups.”” The Atlantic
Q&A: An NYPD Officer’s Real Talk on Garner Case – “The police officers stationed at the demonstrations ranged from friendly to scornfully aggressive — but throughout the evening I spent bouncing around between various protest sites, I found myself wondering how they really felt about what was happening in the city they swore to protect. So I contacted an NYPD police officer who had been honest with me in the past and, very early this morning, after the demonstrations dispersed, we met for a drink at a bar on the Upper West Side. He agreed to speak frankly — though anonymously — with me about his views on the case. I pulled out a digital recorder, and we started chatting.” — NYMag
